In an unprecedented act, the Jalisco Commission for Human Rights has issued a recommendation to various levels of government and other institutions to take more robust measures to curb the wave of violence gripping the state.
Ombudsman Alfonso Hernández Barrón said strategies to combat the violence are clearly not working, despite the huge sums of money invested to this end.
The recommendation includes 81 proposals, more than 120 specific actions that could be taken and 17 petitions directed to government departments, the university community and the business sector.
Hernández Barrón said the cumulative effect of the increase in high-impact crime, which has been well documented by local media outlets, spurred the rights commission into action.
Students, as well as private citizens, are bearing the brunt of the rising crime wave, the ombudsman said. More than 5,000 students from the University of Guadalajara (UdG) last week staged a rally outside the rectory to protest the recent murder of a 21-year-old law student, Karina González.
UdG Vice Rector Miguel Ángel Navarro said the wave of violence “cannot continue” and that violent crime has reached “alarming dimensions.”
Jesús Medina Varela, leader of the Federación de Estudiantes Universitarios (FEU) student union, said Jalisco should be classified as a “failed state” due to the widespread impunity that prevails here.
Recent data published by Spanish-language daily Mural indicates that almost 90 percent of persons detained by Guadalajara municipal police between June 1, 2016 and February 7, 2018 were released back into the community due to a lack of evidence presented within 48 hours of their arrest. Six out of ten people arrested in Zapopan go free, the newspaper noted in another article.
Mexico’s new criminal justice system introduced 18 months ago has been fiercely criticized for placing too great a burden on low-level police officers who lack the skills and training required to negotiate the complicated paperwork required by law to bring detained suspects in front of a judge.